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Show THE FRANKLIN TRUST. i I Local business men have had their first intro- 1 i), Hfl duction to the Franklin club during the past few . ill 91 days. Hitherto the name has either been enig- ;! HH matical or has excited no attention. For all they h HGS knew it might either have been a male branch j BH of the W. C. T. U. or an amateur board of j , Hfl strategy. t : In reality it looks like a league of job printers j 'j VH designed to job merchants out of fat margins whenever. they place orders for printing with local j ' firms. : ' Hj Business men, during the past few months, ! ; IH have wondered why, when they were prepared to j 'h place an order involving hundreds of dollars, the I Hj bids they received did not vary to the amount of 1 , 50 cents. Ask the Franklin club. 1 "j ' H They can very readily explain this seeming , i s , jH anomaly. According to their rules, every job j 91 printer must have his bid registered with a com- ' ' 19 mittee of the club appointed for that purpose. f This naturally prevents any wily printer from un- jH derbidding any of his compatriots of the club. ! j The club was first organized for social pur- j '9 poses and the promotion of good will among the ' J grimed type foundrymen. In a few months the ; J j.' jH social amenities were forgotten, it developed into ! j a trust more compact than the typographical ' union, which is another way of calling a spade a spade.' All this was done under the seductive . 'H argument that mutual protection was needed. ! jjH This mutual protection has a funny side to it. flS It practically electrocutes the little jobber. If a flj merchant gets the same bid from a little jobber h; bH that he receives from a big house where the type j , ( is perhaps newer and the facilities greater, where I jfl will he naturally have his work done? So the '; H - trust is gradually cemented and the little jobber ' wakes up in the ash barrel. Thus are they "mu- ; j 'H tually protected." i i j j Then the digified non-union Deseret News is ' ! ' ' n admitted to the club, which seems a ludicrous in- I ! , H ' 1 MB cidcnt when the arguments advanced by the ;1 : Franklin club are considered. The club recently jij !,j ordered a raise of from 20 to 25 per cent in the ill j I rates for printing and gave as an explanation the 1 1 f; j ; j fact that the typographical union had' recently j' ; ill ! decided on a minimum scale of wages of from $18 1 ' j ! to $20 per week and had reduced the working day j , I j one hour. Very well. But why was the Deseret : ij j :j News, which pays no attention to unions, admitted ' fM into the trust? Certainly their raise in prices to 'j1 "'J if business men had no connection with any raise ii the typographical union could have made. They 'i ! I . have simply raised their prices to correspond with ! ! : the Franklin club scale, and are paying their non- ' 1 I' union employes the same wages as before. Very jj M nice for the News, isn't it? And wasn't it neces- ' fl' sary to get the non-union News into the trust, to . eliminate competition and make it possible to 1 '! charge exorbitant rates for printing? i ) 1 i The Franklin club is quite a formidable con- 1 1 cern. It raises prices as arbitrarily as the coal I trust, and up to date it has shown no symptoms of M I j monetary modesty. The merchants are becoming 1 quite well aware of this. The result will prob- ) I ably be that they will have their printing done in j I ! other cities where the rates are far less exorbi- ( I ! tant, and that in turn means that within a short ; j I i time the Franklin Club Trust will be forced to if!; capitulate. . I u |